Tonight’s boardroom scene opened with Lord Sugar giving the groups a good telling off for their failings in the task – which was to buy up to £500 worth of blank products and cover them in designs before selling them to tourists.

The boys’ team (Phoenix) didn’t put much thought into their bag designs – which consisted of a red bus – with Lord Sugar telling them: “You can have the greatest margin in the world but in the end if the punter doesn’t want to buy your product its meaningless isn’t it?”

At this point, team Phoenix did their first session of nodding sincerely and saying “Yes, Suralan”, like they’re supposed to. Plenty more where that came from, chaps.

The girls’ designs went down well, although Sterling didn’t much about when it came to laying into Project Manager Gabrielle’s skills. Her management style was questioned by Jane, who said Gabrielle had failed to take charge of the finances, so she did it as it “just needed to be done.”

But onto the all important numbers:

Sterling (the girls) had total sales of £690.60 with a total spend of £475.80. That means they made a total profit of £214.80

Phoenix (the boys) had total sales of £1015.60 with a total spend of £399.40. That means they were the winners of the task with a profit of £616.20

And while Phoenix were sent off to enjoy an art inspired reception with canapés and cocktails at the house, Sterling were left to battle it out in the first showdown of the series.

Team Moss Bros (aka, the boys) (Image: BBC)

Team Sterling, aka Fight Club (Image: BBC)

Back in the boardroom, Jane was quick to blame Gabrielle for being too preoccupied with the design over selling the products. She said: “From my point of view the guys were very focused on their margins, focused on how many products they were going to sell at the end of the day.”

Karren Brady retorts, “that’s called strategy”, to which Jane replies, “I know that and I’m saying we didn’t do that.”

After Lord Sugar pointed out that the team who were sent to London Zoo sold a lot less product, everyone’s gaze shifted to Bilyana, who was oh-so-pushy when it came to her sales strategy. All the girls blamed the long walk that Bilyana led them on to find local shops, costing them precious sales time, before describing how they got shouted at by a shop manager for being too pushy. Nick Hewer, who witnessed their desperate sales effort, piped up: “The shopkeeper was so affronted by their sales approach that she wouldn’t buy anything, she couldn’t stand being cornered by a pack of baying hyenas.”

Harsh. And while Bilyana was blamed for her (lack of) sales technique, Katie was criticised for being too quiet. Nick told her: “I thought you were missing really.”

The girls' team desperately bombard a retailer with sales techniques, before having a big argument (Image: BBC)

We disagree – Katie did a great job of telling Bilyana that she was behaving “like an animal… at the zoo” earlier in the episode and we appreciated her for that really swell pun.

Needless to say, manager Gabrielle decided to take Bilyana and Katie in for the final boardroom exchange, telling them: “Katie because maybe you did pull your weight but I myself did not see that and I’m just going on what everyone else has told me, and Bilyana for making everyone waste a lot of time.”

When asked by Lord Sugar why the rest of the team was criticising her, Bilyana told him that she felt as if it was because she wasn’t as loud as the other girls.

Bilyana added that she approached the task by analysing the risks, which earned her a good shouting at. Lord Sugar told the 25 year old: “Bilyana you’re sitting there talking like a city strategist, this is a two bob outing. This is not a takeover of Goldman Sachs, this is simple stuff!”

Bilyana then tried to shift the blame onto manager Gabrielle for her poor people skills, who turned and shouted in her face: “You can’t use the excuse of ‘I’ve got a small voice, nobody listens to me’.

“I have a small voice but everybody respected me, everybody that was under my eye at least listened to me. But with you all I hear is excuses, excuses, excuses – what’s your excuse for everything that you did?”

Bilyana put up one hell of a fight, but got the boot in the end (Image: BBC)

Katie the mouse (Image: BBC)

Project manager Gabrielle avoided the sack (Image: BBC)

Even Lord Sugar turns on an emotional Bilyana, telling her: “I don’t want to bring out the violin and listen to your sob story.”

He then addressed Katie and her quiet ways, who defended herself by saying as loudly as she could: “I absolutely swear I was not hiding, there’s no way I would do that.”

What, not even at the zoo? But everyone has played hide and seek at the zoo at least once.

And by this point, Lord Sugar had made up his mind and delivered his final verdict to the fidgeting ladies.

He said: “Gabrielle – you did work hard and you showed a lot of passion but there’s been lots of talk from the other people about the lack of direction and this task was deliberately designed to be simple, it’s not rocket science.

“Katie – people have been in this boardroom many times telling me, ‘I don’t want to override that one’ and sometimes those people’s actions cost them dearly.

“Bilyana – you have clearly got the capability of doing something but you have not given anybody any credit for doing anything.’

Bilyana then interrupted with: “If you give me the opportunity I will prove to you that I will be a solid project manager.”

See you later, Bilyana (Image: PA)

But Lord Sugar dismissed her plea and sniped: “I’m not listening to anybody anymore now, I’ve had enough of listening to you. I’m telling you what the situation is whether you like it or not.

“It is a difficult decision to make in this first task so the person leaving today may feel that they haven’t had enough time to show themselves but that’s tough, that’s what this process is about.

“I did say in my introduction that I didn’t want anybody to hide and on that basis…”

Bilyana then interjected AGAIN, much to Lord Sugar’s annoyance, so he shouted: “You don’t do yourself any favours, Bilyana – you’re fired.”

Bilyana got the finger tonight (Image: BBC)

How very dramatic indeed.

And as Bilyana is driven off in a taxi, she reflects: “I feel the decision wasn’t fair and I don’t think that my performance cost us the task.

“But my business plan is excellent so I’ll just move on straight away.”

We’re sure she will move on very fast, thanks to the rollerskates she wears to and from work everyday. We didn’t just make that up – Bilyana actually rollerskates everywhere across London. Makes you a bit glad she got the sack, doesn’t it?